Friday, October 30, 2015

Ghosts in the Forest (Thriller!): Kamigo Citizen Forest 上郷市民の森

5 days
after the first Citizen Forest, Iijima Citizen Forest, was born in April 1972,
another Citizen Forest opened its gate. It was Kamigo Citizen Forest of 4.8 ha
with 1.3 k trekking roads. As this is another oldie of the Citizen Forest
family, it also keeps a Skeleton in the closet. My google search says the gazebo
in the open space at the top of the hill was once a popular spot for suicide,
and hence it is obvious for psychics to meet wondering souls around there. I
just imagined the scenes of first few minutes in the video “Thriller” of
Michael Jackson … (Map of the Forest, here.) Very unfortunately, I have not seen
Nearly Headless Nick this time. When I’ve been to Seibei Hiroba (清兵衛広場Seibei
Open Space), the weather was warm, sky was blue, and the view from the wooden
observatory was open-wide. (It was supposed to be able to see Mt Fuji, but the
horizon was misty then.) I had a very good lunch. Legend says 17 people killed
themselves in Kamigo Forest so if you are blessed to have such powers, you can utilize
your skill for supernatural communication there, perhaps.

You
may be able to recognizethe existence of spirits here. I cannot.

Actually,
if you plan to hike Enkaizan 円海山area, which is a complex of 4
Citizen Forests and Yokohama Nature Sanctuary (and Zoo; more to them in the
later posts), Kamigo Forest can be a good starting point. If that is the case, using Kanachu Bus from
JR Konandai Station港南台駅 of Keihintohoku Line would be a wise choice for the access to Kamigo Forest. From Number 1
and 2 Bus Stops of Konandai Station, there are numerous services to go to
Momijibashi Bus Stop 紅葉橋停留所that is the most convenient stop for the Forest. Also, I may recommend
you to use toilet of Macdonald’s in front of Momijibashi Stop since currently
toilets for Kamigo Forest is out-of-order. On the other hand, if you do not
intend to hike, but enjoy Kamigo Forest only, I would suggest to going there on
foot. It is only about 30 minutes’ walk that would be about the same
time-investment even if we use bus from Konandai. Besides, along the way, we
can have an incredible vista of “unexplored region” of Yokohama.

Konandai
Station.Bus stops are behind this monolith(which is art, mate).

Momijibashi
Bus Stop and Golden Arch

From
Konandai Station, leave the South Exit, and take the road to Yokohama Women’sJunior College横浜女子短大. Eventually,
we meet Konandai Station Entrance Traffic Light 港南台駅入口. Cross the road at the
traffic light, and proceed to the narrower road ahead going into the
residential area. The road mildly goes down and reaches to a crossing of 3
forked road with a coffee shop at the corner. Take the left road that first
leads us to the main entrance of Yamate-Gakuin Jr. and Sr. High School山手学院中高. The
way curves along the campus, and becomes pedestrian only going up and down a
hill where the school buildings are situated over the fence on the left. At the
end is the back gate of the school, and on the right there is a steep paved
slope going down to Prefecture Road #23 where Momijibashi Bus Stop is. And
here, stop at the top of the paved slope, and look the other side. I simply
wondered if it was Yokohama: no housing complexes, but green hills and valleys.
It is the vista of Enkaisan Area of 700 ha greenery in Yokohama, aka
“unexplored region.” We’ll go there eventually.

Konandai
Station Entrance Traffic Light

Coffee
shop

The main
entrance ofYamate-Gakuin Jr. and Sr. High School

Along
the campus road, take the left narrower way

The
road goes down,and we can see the hardpan of the hill,i.e. typical of Miura
Peninsula.

The
nearest green hill should be Segami Citizen Forest.

Going
down the hill to the Road #23, turn left, and in front of us on the right over
Itachi-gawa (いたち川Weasel River) is Kamigo Forest. This is one of the oldest members of
Yokohama Citizen Forest family, and last March the collaboration of the 3 groups
of volunteers (including Boy Scouts) and the City created a conservation and
management plan for the next 4 years of the Forest. The plan is funded by
Yokohama Green Tax. So it is official, called “The Environmental Planning forthe Future of the Kamigo Forest.” They held several meetings and field studies,
and defined the outcome of the project to make Kamigo Forest that cohabits with
ordinary lives of people. For making
this to happen, the plan defined divisions of labor among volunteers and the
City, the zoning, and the schedule of maintenance works and volunteer training to learn and develop the plan more. It sounds like a typical project cycle –
Most Significant Change M&E approach, doesn’t it? When we approach to the
Forest from Momijibashi Bus Stop, we first cross Momijibashi, then take the
road on the left as the sign post suggests. At the end of the road, there are 2
ways; one on the right goes into the Forest, and another is going to Mizuki
Hiroba (みずき広場 Mizuki Open Space) where it has a billboard and
warehouses for volunteer works.

Believe
it or not, in front of Mizuki Hiroba,there is a house of Mori,i.e. Forest,
Family.

To the
Forest

Entrance
to the Forest

When
we enter the Forest from Momijibashi, we fist climb up the wooden steps and
corridors constructed on the steep hardpan at the bottom of the hill. We then first enter into the route called
Bamboo Way (竹のみちfor obvious reason), and later to a coniferous forest. The way
eventually becomes Momiji-Zaka (もみじ坂Maple Tree slope) where there
are maple trees young and old. They were unfortunately still green in the
middle of October, but will be very beautiful at the end of November. At the
end of Momiji-zaka is haunted Seibei Hiroba. All along the climbing, I could
not feel the existence of human ghosts, but was able to figure out Taiwanese
squirrels running here and there. Cute.

Wooden
route

We can
recognize hardpan easilyalong the way.

Bamboo
way

Momiji-zaka
with benches

Seibei
Hiroba is a wide open space with lots of grass, sunshine and a high-tension
transmission tower. The place spreads along the ridge way, and surrounding
vegetation is more of large deciduous trees. The biota of Yokohama is evergreen
broad-leaved forest, and when humans cut trees for utilitarian purpose,
deciduous trees comes out from the soil left from the post-Ice Ages. The
deciduous trees were then used for building materials, fuel, and the source of
fertilizers to the agriculture. So, the top of the Kamigo Forest has a long
history of human intervention. One of the targets for the Plan was to recreate
deciduous tree forest in the ridge of the hill. This summer the volunteers transplanted
in pots sprouts of quercus serrata and others from another parts of the forest.
They, including kids of 99th Yokohama Group of Boy Scouts, are now
nurturing the sprouts home. Next year, they will bring them in Seibei Hiroba.

Seibei
Hiroba Observatory

The
vista from the Observatory.Mt Fuji was supposed to be in front of us!

From
Seibei Hiroba, we can go down the hill to Ozuki Residential Area 尾月町.
Southern route via Tsubaki no Michi (つばきのみちCamellia Street whose camellias
were planted by volunteers) has another observatory called Miharashidai 見晴台. From
there, we can see Araizawa Forest Hills on the right and Yokohama Nature
Sanctuary Hills on the left, sandwiching a housing area along the valley …
typical in Yokohama!

Camellia
Street

Miharashidai

and
its view

Going
down from Miharashidai to Hie Shrine

This
slope is from the north of Seibei Hiroba.

From
Ozuki residential area, if we proceed to the north, we find Weasel River and
Road #23 where we started. Actually, there is a quiet promenade along Weasel
River. The source of the Weasel River is Nature Sanctuary. We’ll go there
later.

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About Me

My
family moved to Yokohama from Tokyo before I became 3 years old. Since then,
Yokohama is my home town. (Though, I cannot be Hamakko since I was born in Tokyo ... Hey, this is Japan!) I have watched my playground is changing always. I
hope you find Yokohama interesting place. With love, Naomi